We've wrapped up the show activities and speyclave, and are recovering currently... but not for long, there are big native steelhead pushing up the rivers and the reports and photo galleries will have to wait until the steelie jones is fed starting at o'dark thirty tomorrow. Flies to tie before we sleep.

We should all thank those who made this show such a great success - a lot of hard work was given to the cause by everyone and the response we got at Meydenbauer proves that it was more than worth it. It was a huge effort made successful by the combined efforts of many, like Marlboro was in January. We've all gained considerably from their tireless efforts and we owe a lot to those who make our shows so successful!

In the evenings to come those who attended will post images and stories from the great northwest adventure... and now time to go enjoy why it is we do all this away from the water!

What a terrific time we had! The speyclave on the Snoqualmie was absolutely the best. I figured there were at least 75 people that showed up.

Thursday morning, I picked up Nobuo at the airport and brought him into Seattle. My office is directly across from Safeco Field, so the first thing he had to do was go to the souvenir shop where he looked at everything Ichiro. Afterwards, we took a short walking tour of Seattle before we met Brian (aka doublespey) at McRory's for lunch. I told Nobuo that I had been to Scotland a long time ago and that I attended a Scottish Game Fair. It was held outdoors on the banks of the River Spey on a huge sprawling estate of some old lord who needed the extra money. It was raining of course and everyone looked as if they had just stepped out of a Barbour catalog. The men were all sporting Wellies, Barbour coats and brellies. The women were all redheads with short leads attached to well-mannered BIG dogs. It was quite the deal. The entire show was held inside tents and under canopies and were totally exposed to the elements. There were dog trials, sporting clays and all manner of fishing, from course to fly. On the river, men were casting two-handers into the river and it didn't matter that it was in spate because this was the only opportunity for many to go home and say that they had cast into the River Spey.

Our clave was held outside on the river. It was alternately blustery, rainy and sunny all day and it reminded me very much of that day in Scotland. If there is a show next year, our speyclave should be a sanctioned event. Get on it Juro!

Aaron emptied his shop of rods and reels again. Dana punched his tight arrow-shaped loops into the upstream wind with his usual ease. Tyler did his best to put hit the passing cars on the highway across the river. The highlight of the day was seeing Nobuo pick up 100 feet of full sink line with his CND and lay out a single spey across the river!

The framed winter and summer flies Duggan had made were beautiful and drew a lot of raffle buyers. I overheard a number of people complaining, both at the show and today on other websites, about the lack of anything steelhead at the Show. Well, it was certainly happening at the flyfishingforum/Wild Steelhead Coalition booth. All the tyers drew good crowds but Ed Ward beat us all with a huge crowd while he tied his Intruder.

I spoke to a lot of my industry and retail friends and they were all extremely pleased with the show. Juro pulled off an amazing juggling act and deserves to land the fish of his dreams sometime this week.

Those of you who didn't get to the show missed Simon attempting to spey cast on a rug on Sunday! That's right, a rug. No water, no grass, he had to do it indoors on a rug.

Simon, you did good with your spey demo, even if you couldn't make a proper roll cast let alone a spey cast. (You really didn't think I could lt it pass without mention did you?)

The clave on Friday was a highlight of the weekend. It was nice to see folks again, talk with them, meet some new folks, do some casting, and offer some casting tips to a few. All on a typical February winter steelheading day on the river. Glad to hear Nobuo go some fish, even if they were not steelhead, they were very nice dollies.

It was a pleasure meeting you and the other spey folks from the Washington area. You have a great bunch of folks up there.

The speyclave was great. I learned a lot from the casters up there, especially the Perry Poke from Ed Ward.

The show in Bellevue was also nice as it was flyfishing only, although steelhead fishing will hopefully get more representation in the future. You guys did a wonderful job of showing others our sport. I had an enlighting front row view of Ed tying his intruder.

Hat's off to you and all of that helped pull off the speycalve and show. I have worked on similar scenes and know the work it takes to pull it off.

Also, is it possible to get a copy of the video taken during the demo by Ed Ward of his Intruder?

Gladly pay for copying and shipping.

Let me know.

Hope to see you at the Spey Clave on the Sandy River down here in May.

The pleasure was all mine, thank you for your high-energy involvement in the sessions, clave, etc.

I don't think we're going to offer the tapes of the tying sessions, for one thing it was a huge gesture that they offered to do it in the first place. Our booth was unique at the show because of their tying sessions. Dana and I are already full of gratitude for them doing it for our community.

I guess there is only one way to experience these kinds of sessions... see you at Meydenbauer next year!